00:00Let's see what John Fanta of NBC Sports has to say about that.
00:03John, welcome back, buddy.
00:06Hello, guys. Happy Tuesday to you. Thanks for having me.
00:10It is a Tuesday, and we are happy here.
00:13I guess we'll get your immediate reaction that Kenny Atkinson and the front office will be back.
00:19Is this the right move for the Cavaliers?
00:23Well, I'm surprised at how quickly this news comes out off everything.
00:30It's really hard for me to say that it is the right move, because the team just quit.
00:35They gave up in this series, and in the final two games of the series,
00:40it was just apparent that effort was a real question.
00:44And when effort is a question, there are people that have to be held accountable.
00:49And to me, for this news to come out less than 24 hours after that,
00:56which was an embarrassment last night, you got embarrassed on your home floor.
01:01You really got embarrassed the last two games of the series on your home floor.
01:05But particularly last night, there's a mix here.
01:10The 50,000-foot view from above in the cloud says there's a lot of teams and a lot of
01:16people
01:16and a lot of fan bases that would kill to be in a conference finals.
01:20The other side of it is, how close?
01:24How much closer are you to a championship than you were two or three years ago?
01:29And, well, the answer is revealed in the fact that you got to the pinnacle of your conference.
01:34And, ultimately, now today, the consensus is you're with the rest of the conference,
01:42which is made up of mostly pretenders.
01:45So my answer today is I am not going to say to you, Nick and JP, that I'll go scorched
01:52earth
01:52and, you know, I want everybody in the organization fired.
01:56I'm not in that class.
01:58Do I think it's the right move?
02:00I think it's – I don't think it's the right move to think that status quo with everybody
02:07and just saying everybody's back less than 24 hours after you got embarrassed on your own court.
02:14I don't like that move.
02:16I don't think that that's right here today.
02:18That's awfully quickly for me to make these determinations.
02:21I don't know about you guys, but I can't watch what I did last night and then say,
02:25yes, let's keep skipping along.
02:27Everything's great.
02:28All right, John.
02:29John, I just put you in charge of the Cavs for this offseason.
02:32What are you doing?
02:33What's your moves?
02:37Well, I think that you have to – you don't have a choice on James Harden.
02:44And based on all the reports that have come out today, he's going to be back.
02:48So, you know, that situation, it is what it is.
02:52I think you've got to look at Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell and say, okay, what can we get in
03:02return?
03:04What are the situations that are going to benefit us?
03:08You do have to try to do what you can to go after LeBron James because if you go and
03:16get LeBron James and you keep these pieces together for the most part, then do you have a shot at
03:25things, a shot at a Hollywood movie?
03:28Yeah, well, you know, you do.
03:31I think it's short-sighted to say there's no chance and, you know, just blow everything up.
03:37Okay, you want to blow everything up?
03:38Then it's going to take four to six years.
03:41And so, for me, the LeBron elephant in the room, it's real because it's a different situation knowing that this
03:50upcoming season, for all intents and purposes, is going to be his last.
03:54It's going to be his last run at this thing.
03:57And if he's in the Eastern Conference, he's got a better shot than what he's doing in the Western Conference.
04:03There's no questions asked about that.
04:05But, yeah, you've got to get on the phone and you've got to be looking at the Giannis option.
04:13You've got to be looking at the potential LeBron Avenue, what that looks like financially.
04:18And, unfortunately, to be able to access talent and to be able to pursue the biggest names, you can't keep
04:26things the same way, nor alone should you want to.
04:29You can't.
04:31You can't just run it back.
04:32It's the definition of insanity at this point.
04:35It's why I supported the Garland-Harden move in that moment, why I supported that move as is, because I
04:43didn't think the Cavs would be in the conference finals if they had kept things status quo.
04:49But I've got to get on the phone and I've got to say, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell, what's the
04:53market for them?
04:54What is the market for them?
04:55I'm not saying, you know, trade both, but you have one of those two guys, you've got to take a
05:02hard look at, okay, what's the value on the other side for us to be able to benefit?
05:09Because you don't have draft assets.
05:11You don't have a future carved out.
05:13So I'm not in the world of detonate everything, provided that you can go and get a superstar or a
05:23guy that would be on his left deck knowing that he would be on a team that made the conference
05:28finals this year.
05:30All right, John, so let's assume that the LeBron thing is independent of whatever move they make, because they can
05:36sign him to like a mid-level exception if they get under the first apron, or second apron, excuse me.
05:41But you mentioned Giannis.
05:43Another name that could be out there is Jalen Brown.
05:46So these are kind of four different trades.
05:50So either Donovan for Giannis or Donovan for Jalen Brown, or Evan for Giannis or Evan for Jalen Brown.
05:56Of those four moves, which one intrigues you the most?
06:02Well, Donovan for Giannis, I'm going to eliminate them.
06:07Does not intrigue me because I don't love Giannis and Mobley in the same situation.
06:13Um, I, I, it was interesting, Nick and JP, because I felt, I felt like the last two or three
06:22weeks, I found more out about Evan than previously ever before, because he was starting to make some threes.
06:29He started to show his offensive arsenal in these situations.
06:33I would, I'm intrigued by the idea of Donovan for Jalen Brown.
06:37Uh, I, I am, uh, because of, of the fact that like Donovan's been, Donovan's done a lot of, of
06:47great things.
06:48Uh, there's no question about it, but in terms of the way that the pieces to the puzzle fit, you
06:54know, it may, it may just be time for, for a mix-up and for a change.
06:58And you have to, you have to be bold.
06:59You have to be different, um, to, to pull this off.
07:03If you want to do a, a Mobley for Giannis, my trepidation on that is I, I started to see
07:12signs that Evan could be accelerating here.
07:14I, I really did.
07:16And I'm fearful of trading him to someone else and then for him to really potentially break out and become
07:22a different, different player.
07:24This is why the coaching staff were retaining everybody there is a little bit of a, you know, it gets
07:29me scratching my head because it's like there's signs with Evan Mobley of, he could be that guy.
07:34He could, he could, he could be that type of player for, for his team.
07:38He could be a superstar if everything clicks together.
07:41Um, but yeah, I, I, I would look at it from the standpoint of it's either gotta be, I don't,
07:48I don't trade, um,
07:51Mobley for Jalen Brown because Brown, Mitchell, Harden, that doesn't match to me.
07:56It, uh, it doesn't in the same way that I don't trade Donovan for Giannis because I don't love Giannis
08:02and Mobley together.
08:03I just don't.
08:04Um, so it would be one of the other two moves.
08:07Um, you know, Brown let's, let's be honest here.
08:11The one, the one problem with Jalen Brown is does a guy who hopped on Twitch and was critical of
08:19his team, how's that going to match up with, with James Harden?
08:22How is that going to match up with James Harden culturally?
08:25How's that going to match up, match up in the locker room?
08:28Uh, I don't, I don't know the answer to that question.
08:30It's that Brown and Harden are going to coexist better than Mitchell and, and Harden.
08:35And that's your argument on that front.
08:37Okay.
08:37Well, I'm, I'm intrigued by it, but, but I do have some.
08:41Some questions about Jalen Brown and some of the things he did when the Celtics season came to an end.
08:45So if I have to pick between Brown and Giannis, I am picking the Giannis route.
08:51And, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm torn on this, but I'm, but you're locking me into one.
08:57I'm then doing the Mobley for Giannis.
09:00John Fanta on the wise heart, right?
09:02We make it right.
09:02Call kind of right.
09:03Hotline a little bit of news to pass along.
09:05Here's the NCAA has denied Texas tech quarterback, Brendan Shoresby's request for reinstatement.
09:11For eligibility for 2026.
09:13That, according to Pete Thamel, that could have some implications here.
09:17If a, uh, I think it's a Lubbock judge says, uh, he will not grant Shoresby an injunction.
09:22That's the last domino to fall before we find about the supplemental route.
09:26So that's a little breaking news there.
09:27Yeah.
09:27That day, June 1st, by the way, for his court date.
09:29So we'll get some answers there shortly.
09:30All right, John, uh, I guess we're still just trying to figure it out.
09:33Do you think they made the right move in bringing back Kenny Atkinson then?
09:41I don't think so.
09:43I don't think so.
09:43Not, not after last night and the last, the last couple of nights.
09:47Guys, that, that is a, that is a, a real indictment on your culture.
09:53A real indictment the last couple of nights.
09:56That was hard to watch last night.
09:58If you're a Cleveland fan, that's just depressing.
10:02If you turn, I'm normally not like this, but if you, if you flip the game off last night,
10:07I wouldn't blame you because the effort was, was really, it was, it was rough to watch.
10:12And the head coach and whether or not he is getting through to his guys, like that's,
10:18that's clear as day that, that, that it wasn't happening.
10:21And so that's where I, I, I got to vote no on it.
10:26I know it's really difficult because it's one of those things where you still made it
10:32to the conference finals and he didn't in fact get you to step further, but when the
10:38step further than entail the four nothing sweep in which you're making some
10:42statements about analytics, which have no sense of real proof and no sense of
10:48legitimacy, and then your guys are making statements that they're the, that they
10:53were actually the better team guys, people are laughing around the country at the
10:57cab, at the cabs, they're laughing that come on, man.
11:02Like you, you can't say that you were the best.
11:04You got your, I don't know if I, you got your ass kicked.
11:07I mean, is it, but let's just, let's just call it what it is.
11:11They, they got it handed to them last night and to make matters worse, they're
11:15making statements that, that don't back any of it really don't back any of that
11:20up.
11:20And I just, that's a reflection on leadership, lack thereof, and a reflection on the
11:28tone that you're setting in your locker room.
11:31So I, you didn't hear me go, you know, say right away that, that I, cause I know these
11:37decisions are hard.
11:38This is a hard one because he did make it to the conference finals, but it's one of those
11:43things where I can't unsee what occurred last night.
11:47Uh, and you two can't either.
11:48And I don't know, I haven't, I genuinely don't know where you two side, if you would
11:52have brought him back or not.
11:53I fired him in the two o'clock hour, John.
11:55My vote is snow.
11:57What did Nick do?
11:57Is Nick retaining him?
11:59I hadn't made my declaration yet.
12:01Yeah.
12:01He didn't really say it one way or another.
12:03I just, I, I, I don't love the idea of using me.
12:06Well, yeah.
12:07Cause you're the guest and Jonathan already, I give, we both said at the same time, I
12:12didn't think they were going to put out the three 20 at some point.
12:14I was going to get around to it, by the way, I just, I think the problem is, I think
12:18you
12:18should have fired either Kenny or Kobe.
12:21And I think, I think Kobe is really not gotten nearly enough tongue lashing today across the
12:26station and across Cleveland.
12:29And, and why do you say that?
12:31Because he built a team that has no heart and he has seen this team in real time in four
12:37years.
12:38And his solution to your team has no heart was to trade for James Harden.
12:43Yeah.
12:45Well, and that is exactly.
12:47And that, that's a, that's a very good point by you.
12:50And also I would say this, this is a guy who it's not like he's in year three or year
12:59four, like he's been part of the organization since 2012.
13:05And, you know, you've, you've been in this capacity, uh, since 2017.
13:12So the fact is like, you've been at this here, uh, a long time and you've been given several
13:19rounds, several chances, several, several dollars.
13:22So I, I am, I am with you.
13:25I'm with you on that, Nick of you got to look at, at, at Altman hard here and, and perhaps
13:32harder than all than Atkinson, because here's the thing, the Cavaliers problems and the lack
13:39of toughness and the lack of, of sort of edge, like this team has didn't, they, they beat
13:45the Pistons, but they beat the Pistons because the Pistons roster has flaws of itself and
13:48their front office totally mishandled the trade deadline.
13:51Didn't get Kate Cunningham a proper number two or anything close to that.
13:55And eventually it did them in the Cavs, their lack of toughness and lack of heart.
14:00This is not the first indication of it.
14:03It's been a real thing.
14:04And that's why, that's why the Donovan Mitchell question is real, because if you're going
14:09to be a top 10 to 12 player in this league and I get it, there's people out there today
14:13who are like, well, can those guys don't grow on trees.
14:16And, you know, there's, that's, that's why when you asked me the question, like I go
14:19Mobley for Giannis, cause I, I still, I still liked Donovan that much, but still you're,
14:24you, you're the leader, you're the leader.
14:28And yeah, you, you scored a lot last night, but the best in this league, everybody rallies
14:36around them.
14:37Everybody rallies around them.
14:38And so to your point, you go and get James Harden as a front office, a guy who I, I
14:45understood
14:45why they did it for Garland.
14:46Cause I thought they were lost.
14:48Like we're not debating that trade anymore.
14:50Okay.
14:50You want to debate it?
14:51We can, but like, I, I don't want to do that today, but a guy who has a notorious history
14:55for not being able to do it this time of year.
14:58And also has a history of doing some things that hurt his team.
15:02Like Kenny Hackett, who didn't make that trade, he's not the one who acquired him.
15:06I actually thought he used Harden up the, up until the conference finals.
15:10I thought the way that he used Harden, sometimes hit Harden benefited the team.
15:14So I don't think you could bring both back in this situation.
15:18Uh, I, I, I think somebody had to go running it back is really curious and you better have
15:24some things cooking in the kitchen to justify that.
15:27John, you're cooking in the kitchen.
15:29We appreciate you, buddy.
15:30Thank you, John.
15:31Thank you guys.
15:32Tough, tough day.
15:33We'll be all right.
15:34Thanks.
15:35John Fanta there.
15:36NBC sports.
15:37NBC sports.
15:37NBC sports.
Comments